Chapter 2 - Sarah’s Voice
Victor replayed the recording only after Lily had been taken to a quiet hotel suite with a trusted family friend.
He would not make his granddaughter listen again.
Police secured the black case.
Daniel and Claire were questioned separately.
Daniel insisted the equipment case belonged to gala production company.
Technically, he was right.
Inventory tag identified it as Ashford Event Technologies Case 14.
But Daniel was chairman of tonight’s event committee.
He had personally ordered Case 14 moved from a locked backstage room into ballroom forty minutes before Lily approached Claire.
“Why?”
“Audio equipment.”
“There was no equipment inside.”
Daniel stopped answering.
Sarah’s recording was eleven minutes long.
The first eight minutes sounded ordinary.
She was apparently inside a vehicle or service corridor.
Then:
“Daniel, where are we going?”
A male voice answered:
“You said you wanted proof.”
Daniel.
Victor recognized him.
Sarah continued:
“Proof that Claire forged it?”
“Proof that somebody did.”
Claire forged what?
The recording did not say.
Then Sarah became uneasy.
“This isn’t the hotel archive.”
Daniel answered:
“No.”
“Where are you taking me?”
Static.
Footsteps.
Metal door.
Then Sarah:
“If Lily ever hears this, Daniel lied.”
A struggle.
Sarah shouted Victor’s name.
Recording ended.
Timestamp:
11:48 p.m., eleven months earlier.
The night Sarah disappeared.
Police had believed she left voluntarily after withdrawing $18,000 and sending Victor a message:
I need time. Keep Lily safe.
No body.
No confirmed abduction.
No ransom.
Nothing.
Now Victor knew she had been with Daniel that night.
Daniel had lied to investigators.
He previously claimed he was home.
Victor entered interview room.
“You were last person with my daughter.”
Daniel stared at table.
“No.”
“The recording says otherwise.”
“I was with her earlier.”
“Where did you take her?”
“I can’t tell you.”
Victor leaned closer.
“You can tell police.”
Daniel looked genuinely frightened.
“It won’t help find Sarah.”
“Then what will?”
Daniel glanced through glass toward black case.
“Finding the other one.”
Victor frowned.
“Other what?”
“Case 15.”
Police checked gala inventory.
There was no Case 15.
Then Claire finally spoke.
“There was.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“What happened to it?”
Claire swallowed.
“Sarah took it.”
“What was inside?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor did not believe her.
Then detective brought photograph recovered beneath foam lining of Case 14.
Sarah stood beside Daniel outside Ashford Grand Hotel eleven months earlier.
Between them were two identical black cases.
Case 14.
Case 15.
On back, Sarah had written:
ONE CONTAINS THE LIE.
THE OTHER CONTAINS WHY MOM DIED.
Victor’s blood went cold.
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Sarah’s mother—Victor’s wife, Margaret—had died seventeen years earlier.
Until that moment, Victor had believed her death had nothing whatsoever to do with Sarah’s disappearance.
